


Theft

by RiaTheDreamer



Series: Angst War [2]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Childhood, Gen, RvB Angst War, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 17:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11190171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiaTheDreamer/pseuds/RiaTheDreamer
Summary: Dexter does not put effort into winning the game. Kai likes to win, and he likes to make her smile.





	Theft

“You can have the car,” Kai offers and places the token in his palm. The Monopoly board is worn and old, given to them by the elderly couple that had been in charge of the dancing dogs. They had been a part of the circus three years ago, and had pitied the siblings enough to let them stay in their cart those late evenings mom just seemed to have disappeared.

Currently they have no circus to follow, and instead mom had found a small apartment for them to live in. It still smells of sawdust, for some weird reason, and mom often calls it a rat’s nest. Dexter is yet to see an actual rat but he is pretty sure the hole on the wall would be a great home for it.

Some nights they would play cards but Kai enjoys playing with the tokens when she gets tired of the actual game. She is strangely good at it. The girl is only eight but has a knack for buying the right properties. Maybe it is pure luck but her ability to force the fake money out of Dexter’s hands is a pain for the big brother – but he is too proud to be actually annoyed.

Kai dreams big and wants the Blue spots. Of course she does not know the properties are in fact deep blue but she is quick to make herself comfortable in those parts of the board. Dexter tells her they are blue and she nods and say blue is her favorite – which lasts until the next time Dexter explains a color to her.

Dexter does not play to win. If you put effort into winning you risk getting disappointed or mad or frustrated, and so it is better to make it clear you don’t even care about the game so no one loses face when the two year younger sister wins. This time he has a strategy – which he will never admit - and he quietly goes after the orange properties, and sometimes the red ones when he has the chance.

Tonight Kai has a different strategy and buys everything she lands on, and when she snatches St. James Place right in front of Dexter, the last one he needed to be the ruler of orange land, he frowns to hide his annoyance.

“You’re gonna be broke soon,” he warns her and crosses his fingers that he will somehow avoid landing on one of her properties in his next go.

Kai smirks, and there’s a sort of secrecy in her eyes that is never a good sign. It usually means trouble, and trouble means Dexter has to deal with it since no one else will. When she lands on Atlantic Avenue she demands to buy it before she has even asked which color it is and before Dexter can tell her it’s yellow.

“You’re short on cash,” he reminds her with a snort, and her smile grows big enough for her dimples to show before she fishes out two twenty dollar bills from her lap and places them proudly on the board. Dexter stares at them with a dropped jaw. Kai is good with numbers, that is how she wins this game.

He removes his eyes from the bills to stare at her. “Kai, where did you get those?” He usess the grown-up-voice, the one he needs every now and then when Kai does not want to go to bed or when she starts making a scene in front of too many people.

The proud smirk on her face starts to falter, replaced with a scowl now when her attempt to give him a fun surprise apparently has failed. “From the counter,” she admits, “I was gonna give them back to mom afterwards, I promise.”

Mom does not have that much money. Well, she probably has at times, to pay the rent, barely, but she’d never leave them lying around like this. If they ever have some money to spare, they’ll never see them, and they will never enjoy them since they can’t drink the bottles mom bring home. Dexter knows some tricks from the circus, to play nice and have Kai dance around him while he juggles some colorful balls arounds, and usually the tourists petty them enough to spare some change, and he can buy them some ice cream and other treats to keep the mood high for another day.

But mom usually complains out loud about the rent, at least she did, before Guy moved in.

The guy is a joke – literally, that’s his name, Guy, which is almost worse than Dick which still holds the record of stupid names Dexter has heard. And he has heard a lot, considering how his name is Dexter and his sister is Kaikaina and their mom obviously first found the inspiration for cool names after he was stuck with his.

Guy helps with the rent and sleeps on their couch but only when mom isn’t home. Dexter knows why Guy is here, knows why he disappears with their mom sometimes but can’t bring himself to care; this guy is a dick and will be out before the month ends, probably.  He has already made mom cry twice.

But he’s still around because he has money – and enough money to have them lying around on the counter. “Did you take any more?”

“No! You’re no fun, you were supposed to laugh.”

“Well, I’m not! You suck at cheating, geez.”

“You can’t say that! When I stole from the bank you didn’t complain!”

“Wait, what?” Dexter shakes his head, stands up and picks up the money bills, clutching them tightly in his fist. “Just stay here.”

The siblings share a small room, a bunkbed where Kai enjoys letting her feet hang over the edge in order to stick her feet in his dark hair when she sees the chance. Mom isn’t often home at night but when she is she usually sleeps on the couch.

Dexter leaves the door open by less than an inch, too scared –no, _worried_ the noise would wake up Guy who is definitely sleeping on the couch. Probably. Hopefully.

He has only managed to sneak three steps into the room when he looks up, seeing Guy move away empty bottles on the counter with a furious hand. The clinking stops when he spots the child, and Dexter can feel the edges of the crumbled papers stick out through his fingers.

He is not stupid, despite what mom says, and opens his palm to offer them to the adult. “You dropped those.”

The bills are quickly snatched away from him, and the first thing Guy does is to count. He is quick, though, and raises his head before Dexter can back away. “Are you a thief?”

“No,” Dexter says and takes a step forward. There is a commanding tone to Guy’s voice that tells him it’s best not to run back to his room, especially not when Kai is waiting inside. “I just borrowed it. For the game. No one steals money just to return them, that’s stupid.”

Guy reaches out, snatches him by the wrist and drags him closer. He can smell him now, the same sweet odor that sometimes hang to mom so heavily that it makes him yell for her just to leave, even though he always regrets it later. “Are you a thief?” Guy asks again, voice low.

“No.”

His head is forced to the left, and his chin won’t stop stinging, but Dexter says nothing, biting his lip until Guy takes another step forward, demanding a truthful answer.

“Yes,” Dexter lies, shoulders up near his ears, but he allows himself to ease his stance just slightly when Guy settles heavily on a chair next to the counter.

He lets out a grunt, glancing briefly at the empty bottles with narrowed eyes before placing his stare upon the child again.

“Didn’t even get away with it,” he scolds him with a huff, lighting a cigarette. Dexter is not a fan of the smell but it has become familiar by this point.

Dexter considers explaining himself, of course keeping Kai out of that story, but realizes that is probably a lost cause so why even bother. He lifts a hand to rub his sore cheek, glaring at the wall while doing so.

Guy exhales again, and this time Dexter does not wrinkle his nose. “You gotta earn your money fair and square, boy.”

“Why?” The words slip out of his mouth so easily. “You didn’t.”

By the time Guy is off his chair, Dexter has already braced himself but then the door is opened. It’s the one in the other end of the room, thank the gods – hopefully Kai is playing with the tokens right now. Mom is back, and her normally worn face lights up for a moment when she sees Guy up and awake.

Then she seems to notice the entire situation, and the tension seems to both escalate and deflate on the same time.

Guy takes a step backwards to explain the whole thing to her in a rough voice.

Dexter stares stubbornly at the wall while mom is told how he has stolen the bills and how he was caught in the act and how she has only managed to raise brats.

At some point mom focuses on him, orders him to, “Apologize, Dexter.”

He does not want to say sorry, he has so many other words he would rather use, words that’d make the tourists drop their jaws and look at him in horror. You pick up a thing or two at the circus, mom has taught him that much.

But Dexter has been backed into a corner, quite literally, and he says lowly, “I’m sorry.” And because he knows they are both expecting it, he adds, “ _sir_.” He likes to pretend it’s a bad word, a word bad enough to shock mom, and he puts all the bitterness he can gather into the word.

“’least he knows how to show some respect,” is the answer, delivered in a huff.

It seems to be enough, and a harsh shove towards the bedroom is a signal for him to escape. He accepts it gratefully.

Kai backs away from the door, too late to hide the fact she has been peeking in on the scene. Dexter wants to say something but is too tired. He wants to nap. Closing the door behind himself, he looks at the board. “Did you move any houses?” he asks quietly, sending Kai a smile which she returns.

“Nooo,” she says and follows him as he sits down heavily on his bed. Dexter pretends she isn’t staring at his red cheek before she turns limp and leans heavily against his shoulder. “I don’t like respect,” she informs him quietly, shifting to get in a more comfortably position against his soft body.

Yeah, she has definitely been listening to the conversation.

But Dexter does not feel like scolding her, even though she should have just played with the stupid tokens or something, and he sighs, “Yeah. Me neither.”

Kai mutters a muffled apology, saying it was a stupid plan and not fun at all and she should just have left them alone, and Dexter tells her not to worry.

Smalls fingers forces his clenched fist open and gives him the small, stupid car as a comfort.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt by Creatrixanimi on tumblr: “grif siblings shitty abusive childhood, especially their early childhood. Maybe including grif protecting Kai from one of their mom's shitty boyfriends or something?”
> 
> This one hurt to write. Ow. 
> 
> I’m hoping to finish one more entry before the angst week ends but I am still working on my exam. Sigh.


End file.
